1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system, a communication apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a communication system capable of easily setting a wireless communication, a communication apparatus and method for use therewith, a recording medium for use therewith, and a program for use therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as network technology has become popular, even for apparatuses other than personal computers, the form in which they are connected to a network and are used has become widespread. Furthermore, as a technology for realizing a network, in so-called physical layers, in addition to a network using wired communication in compliance with a standard such as the Ethernet (registered trademark), a network using a wireless connection has become common.
As a standard for a so-called wireless LAN (Local Area Network), which is a network using wireless communication, at present, a wireless LAN in compliance with the IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc.) 802.11 standard has been generally used.
For the wireless LAN, there are known an infrastructure method for enabling a relay station for the wireless LAN, which is called an access point, and apparatuses called stations, to communicate with one another, and an ad-hoc method in which access points are not used and stations directly communicate with one another. The infrastructure method is generally used.
In the standard of the wireless LAN, the setting of apparatuses when the apparatuses are connected to the wireless LAN is specified. In order to perform communication of the wireless LAN by the infrastructure method, settings of an SSID (Service Set ID) and WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) need to match between the access point and the station that is connected to a wireless LAN segment (component units of the LAN) in which the access point is a relay station.
Here, the SSID is an identifier for specifying a specific network in the wireless LAN. In a station that is connected to an access point and a wireless LAN segment in which that access point is a relay station, a common character string is specified as an SSID. The WEP refers to a function for encrypting data to be communicated by an encryption method employing a so-called common key encryption method in which the same key (encryption key) is set in both the access point and the station. As a result of setting a key for WEP (hereinafter referred to as a “WEP key”), not only can data (packets) during communication be encrypted, but also the WEP key can be used for access restriction because it is difficult to connect a station in which the WEP key is not correctly set to the access point.
That is, in a wireless LAN of an infrastructure method, by setting an SSID and a WEP key to be identical to those of the access point with respect to a station that is to be connected to a wireless LAN, communication with another station via an access point can be performed.
Furthermore, in bar codes for setting purposes capable of changing desired setting items on the operation of an optical information reading apparatus by being scanned by the optical information reading apparatus, there are setting bar codes of an optical information reading apparatus for recording a difference between an initial value and a changed value of each setting item (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-366883).